TEHRAN, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran will double the number of daily COVID-19 tests in the coming days, a senior medical official was quoted as saying by Press TV on Wednesday.
The number of daily tests will double, from the current 10,000 tests per day, to 20,000 to help authorities better deal with the disease outbreak, Alireza Biglari, head of the Pasteur Institute of Iran, was quoted as saying.
Biglari said that the number of labs carrying out tests for COVID-19 have also increased to a total of 90 recently across the country.
According to the report, several Iranian biomedicine companies have recently obtained certificates from health authorities to produce COVID-19 test kits on a commercial scale.
In producing the test kits, "we are self-sufficient," Biglari added.
Iran's ministry of health on Wednesday reported a total number of 47,593 cases of novel coronavirus infection, of whom 3,036 have died.
